Toy soldiers and guns have been traditional play things for children for many years. The child will frequently pick up the gun and point it at a toy soldier, pull the trigger and say, "Bang, you're dead!" However, even though toy soldiers and guns have been available for many years, there has always been a certain lack of realism to the game except when the gun fires a projectile to knock over the toy soldier. However, since "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," there is a certain preference among children for ray guns. However, the disadvantage of a gun which projects a beam of light is that, until now, it has not been able to knock over the toy soldier.
It is well known in the prior art to utilize a light projecting device to control a race car and representative examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,525 and 4,865,575. In addition, it is also known that a light ray projecting device may be utilized to cause the upper limbs, torso, and head of a stationary doll to move, this being shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,013,276 and 5,158,492. However, these toys do not cause the figurine to topple as desired when playing with toy soldiers and guns.
It is also known from U.S. 4,844,474 that a vehicle may be designed which will "explode" when struck by a beam of light. While this design has advantages over the other prior art referred to above when playing war games, there is still nothing in this patent which teaches that a figurine can be caused to be toppled over when struck by a beam of light.